Eagles' exit a blow to Valley's civic pride, but we'll live

Fans liked the intimacy Lehigh offered, and the local businesses liked the extra income, but the change is understandable.

March 15, 2013|Keith Groller

Andy Reid just got a lot more popular with some Lehigh Valley football fans.

They may have despised his red-zone decisions and bemoaned his time-management skills, but Reid was always adamant in his admiration for Lehigh University and seemed sincere in expressing delight in bringing his football teams to Bethlehem every summer.

Friday's disappointing announcement that the Philadelphia Eagles had ended a 17-year relationship with Lehigh shouldn't be pinned solely on new coach Chip Kelly because this was an organizational decision and followed an NFL trend — but many fans will still link it to the new regime.

It's a blow to the Lehigh Valley from an economic and public relations standpoint, and it's a bummer for the thousands of fans who flocked to Lehigh's Goodman Campus every summer, often in 90-plus degree temperatures, to get an up-close-and-personal view of their beloved Birds.

Some fans may have only gotten over there once or twice a summer, but it was nice knowing the Eagles were so close, even if for just a few weeks.

Considering all the changes that have been made in the past two months, this year's camp would have been the most fascinating of all and attracted large crowds to the John C. Whitehead Practice Fields.

And it would have been neat to see how Kelly operated, and note the differences between him and Reid and how he related to players and reacted to the fans when they yelled his name as he strolled out of the Cundey Varsity House.

While they'll remain mostly in the controlled environment of the NovaCare Complex, the Eagles will hold a few practices at Lincoln Financial Field that will be free and open to the public.

But there was something cozy and intimate about Lehigh that can't be replicated in a 68,000-seat stadium no matter how hard they try.

You could reach out and touch the guys at Lehigh.

Now they will be kept farther away. And then there are those brake-pumping traffic jams on the Schuylkill Expressway and I-95 you'll have to navigate to see your guys.

From a Lehigh Valley perspective, it was just cool to hear Lehigh University and Bethlehem mentioned daily on Philadelphia stations and national TV networks. It was just one of the quality-of-life things we could put on our resume.

The free publicity the university, city and region received just from having the NFL, the biggest brand in sports, around provided an immeasurable amount of PR value.

Some familiar faces from ESPN and the NFL Network would stop by camp and then they'd be seen at some local restaurant or watering hole and it created a buzz.

You'd get a lot of "Guess who I saw over at Musikfest?" or "You wouldn't believe who was at the table next to me at Starters" conversations.

It wasn't exactly the equivalent of star-gazing in Hollywood or Times Square, but around here the Eagles are at least as big as the Kardashians are on Sunset Strip.

Who needed Ryan Seacrest when you could go over to Lehigh and see Merrill Reese roaming the fields in his sunglasses?

Lehigh football coach Andy Coen said a lot of prospective recruits knew about his school before he even introduced himself because of the Eagles connection.

It made for a nice line in his sales pitch to say: "We're the training camp home of the Philadelphia Eagles."

At the same time, Coen understands the Eagles' decision.

After a couple of storm-related power outages caused him and his staff to scramble to other locations the past couple of seasons, he knows the inconvenience of moving your entire operation, if only for a few days. It's not like you can just load up some things in the back of a pickup and go.

"[Staying in Philly] has got to be an easier process for those guys to accomplish everything they want to get accomplished," Coen said. "I'm sure that's why more and more teams are no longer going away to camp. From my perspective, I certainly understand it, but at the same time it was exciting to have them here and I know people are disappointed."

Coen and others are proud of the job Lehigh did for the Eagles.

"Every time I talked to Andy Reid, he had nothing but great things to say about our operation here and how the team was supported," Coen said.

The Lehigh Valley will be just fine.

Remember, the Lehigh Valley survived before the Eagles came here in 1996 and it will survive without them, and there's probably a large portion of the population who will never even know they're gone.

While their departure is a blow to our civic pride as well as our economy, we'll get over it.

Sure, we'll miss hearing "Reporting live from Eagles training camp in Bethlehem this is …" But there will be no backlash.

Go 4-0 in September and fans here will quickly forget about the Eagles abandoning the Lehigh Valley.